A Gala and Water Act for Elephants

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A sea-lion feeding drew the crowd at the Wildlife Conservation Society event out to a huge tank outside for the cocktail hour.
Patrick McMullan

By

Marshall Heyman

June 11, 2011

In the 1987 film "Wall Street," a canonical, oft-quoted film among wealthy New Yorkers and the people who observe them from the sidelines as they thrive and fail, Gordon Gekko, the infamous character played by Michael Douglas says, to some effect, "That's the one thing you have to remember about WASPs: They love animals and hate people."

This is not to say that everyone there was a WASP or everyone there hates people, or even that everyone there loves animals. We could put together a Venn diagram showing the overlaps, but that would take far more time than we have right now.

The theme this year was "Elephants and Ivory," which meant a few things.

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Jessica Stam and Charlie Wiggins
Patrick McMullan

First, television screens were set up in the dinner tent featuring a loop of lots and lots of images of elephants. Second, the evening honored Iain Douglas-Hamilton, the founder and director of Save the Elephants, a charity that hopes to "secure the future for elephants and sustain the beauty and ecological integrity of the places they live."

As a token of its appreciation, the WCS bestowed upon Dr. Douglas-Hamilton a painting by an elephant named Happy, one of the city's resident animal painters. Assuredly, you wouldn't mind having a painting by this beast on your wall. It was quite colorful and pleasing to the eye, and Dr. Douglas-Hamilton agreed.

"Here we are on this lovely summer evening far from the crash of poachers," he said. "And I've been made very happy by Happy."

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A trainer shows his appreciation to a seal.
Patrick McMullan

The lovely summer evening, it should be noted, wasn't without its thunder and lightning.

"We're not going to get struck by anything," assured Gillian Hearst-Simonds, "because the Black Eyed Peas are going to be hit first. They're definitely our lightning rod." (Fergie, will.i.am and the rest of the Peas, who once, it should be noted, released an album called "Elephunk," were simultaneously giving that concert in Central Park for the Robin Hood Foundation with no doubt far more electrical equipment.)

But back to the zoo: There were other whimsical touches, like bright-pink elephant stirrers in electric-blue drinks being passed. And Preston Bailey, who handled the décor, made 30 elephants out of leaves and flowers as centerpieces and one enormous baby elephant at the entrance that he hoped would be donated to the zoo.

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Walter Tomenson and Sascha de Gersdorff
Patrick McMullan

"We happened to also have the special effects of the real rainforest," Mr. Bailey said, during a lapse from the storm. "We also brought in the mosquitoes."

The life-size baby elephant, he said, took about 10 days to make. The outer part was all real—it had to be finished on location—but the actual inner sculpture was fiberglass.

Mr. Bailey was soon interrupted by waiters passing frozen mojitos in lime sections. Then, he was interrupted by the announcement of a sea lion feeding.

It turns out that there's nothing like a good sea lion feeding to bring together a party—you might want to think of including one the next time you plan a cocktail affair. Everyone in their tuxedos and fancy dress turned raptly to a huge tank at the center of the party as a disembodied voice narrated the proceedings.

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Preston Bailey's baby elephant.
Patrick McMullan

"Did you know that in the middle of New York there are sea lions?" the disembodied voice said. He introduced Scooter, Katie, April and the 9-month-old Edie. Almost immediately, April, who is 21, did a handstand. "A sea lion talking is called barking. Barking is the one way they communicate."

"Female sea lions are called cows and male sea lions are called bulls," the voice went on. "That's a little bit of trivia for you there."

Several trainers threw fish—hors d'oeuvres!—to Scooter, Katie, April and Edie. "This is called positive reinforcement. We encourage good behavior and ignore anything we don't like," the voice said. "Check out that flexible neck. They use their teeth to settle a dispute or find a sunnier spot on a rock." Sound like anyone on the social scene you know?

Eventually the sea lions were satiated, and so, it seemed, were the observers. "Their feeding is just about finished, and it turns out, it's just about time for our feeding at the gala, too," the voice said.

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